Freeing hotels from technological shackles to create more sustainable businesses

Technology can often feel like a barrier standing
between a business and its goals. In an ideal world, all the new generation
platforms and theories – big data,﻿﻿ social media, the internet of things – ultimately connects us
and enables us to make better sense of the world. In reality, vendors cannot
update software quickly enough to satisfy the business world.﻿﻿But a quiet revolution is solving this problem. Open Systems are changing the way all businesses – including hotels
– operate. In today’s world, innovation, flexibility, and speed are key to
competitive advantage; IT needs underpins commercial agility, and open systems
deliver it.

Open systems are different from static proprietary
systems because (as the name suggests) it is open to all. Can you imagine a
world where hotels could plug into IT like we plug
into utility services? That’s what open systems provide – an all-encompassing
IT platform that gives hoteliers the most current and cutting-edge software on
a daily basis. Open systems are higher quality and more secure than static
proprietary systems, as they can continually be upgraded and improved by
developers. They are ‘unlocked’ so a hotelier’s system can be tailored and
modified to fit specific needs, and operate in tandem with third party
software. They are also eminently scalable for any size of hotel, and hoteliers
can grow alongside their IT systems. Anyone who has owned an Android smartphone
will have felt the power and freedom of open technology.

You have likely heard the phrase “due diligence” from your California real estate attorney. This concept means the efforts that must be employed in order to help you determine if you are about to make a good deal or not. This process can help highlight risks that you had not imagined as well as potential benefits. However, attorneys do not deal with the daily operations of the hotel, as a firm that specializes in hotel development consulting in California does. By adding a firm that focuses on hotel development consulting in California to your research team, you can rest assured that you have assembled a competent team to represent your interests.​When purchasing an existing hotel or considering building your own, a consulting firm can help assess the potential profits that can be gleaned from the project. A careful analysis of financial documents can help discover the strengths and the weaknesses of the business, such as a solid earnings history or difficulty retaining a stead workforce. Consultants can view general financial documents, including profit and loss statements, balance sheets and tax returns. They can also review information that may significantly impact the business, such as proposed changes to zoning laws, the government’s use of eminent domain in the area and proposed areas for new development.

Although consultants are not lawyers, they can provide useful information about the hotel’s legal history. They can review if the hotel development has been the target of lawsuits or if it has not complied with local and state laws. With a unique perspective, hotel consultants can provide advice about conditions and contingencies that should be included in development contracts. They also know the major players in the market and may be able to help forge new business relationships between them or highlight potential risks of the competition.

Mihran Kalaydjian Hospitality Advisors is a nationally recognized hotel and restaurant management, and consulting firm. Mihran Kalaydjian Hospitality Advisors has worked with all major hotel brands and nationally known clients that include Wells Fargo, Equitable, and Aetna, as well as individual owners and smaller clients. Mihran Kalaydjian Hospitality Advisors has experience in nearly all major, secondary, and tertiary markets within the continental United States.

Mihran Kalaydjian Hospitality Advisors has been providing full management and consulting support services to the hospitality industry for over twenty five years. During this time, the company has completed over 600 projects. Mihran Kalaydjian Hospitality Advisors has experience with every genre of hotel and restaurant properties, including commercial, convention, resort, luxury, limited service and budget properties.

Forget about the traditional hotel industry approach, and turn your hotel into a winning success story. We strive to challenge the status quo and established order with our best practices and proven strategic methodology. Whether you need help, developing and rolling out a new creative hotel concept, turning around an underperforming property, or groom your results before selling of your hotel.Mihran Kalaydjian Hospitality Advisors is a firm believer you can drive a more healthy return on investment with a unique product and amazing guest experience, over the conventional hotel franchise chain branding route. Keeping up with the latest developments and solutions in hotel distribution and online travel marketing can be challenging, with the landscape changing so quickly. Our hotel strategy specialists are here to change your hotel into a market leader.

OUR MODE

Mihran Kalaydjian Hospitality Advisors delivers the tools and operational systems for property owners and management empowering them to make healthy and proactive financial and operational decisions. Rather than intrusive and oppressive management methods, Mihran Kalaydjian Hospitality Advisors Management puts in place productive operational efficiencies and inspires a singular team approach of positiveness for all - ownership, management and staff. The result is a safe and enjoyable work atmosphere with maximization of operational efficiencies and bottom-line results. Mihran Kalaydjian Hospitality Advisors is a recognized hotel management company with operations across the southern Gulf Coast states with a proven track record of exceeding expectations.

Mihran Kalaydjian Hospitality Advisors offers a comprehensive range of services and tools tailor-made to each project to ensure maximum return on investment to its owners and investors. Our main focus is on accountability. Mihran Kalaydjian Hospitality Advisors communicates exact steps to all administrative departments to ensure accountability. Mihran Kalaydjian Hospitality Advisors instructs and mentors your team to, "Inspect What You Expect", to ensure all departments move forward correctly on a daily basis.Mihran Kalaydjian Hospitality Advisors “MKHA” Resorts continues to deliver outstanding results with aggressive sales, revenue management, and smart expense controls. Our keen understanding of the marketplace, combined with our ability to manage a property to its fullest potential, provides a best-of-class hotel operation and a strong return on investment for our clients and investment partners. It’s because of our experience and expertise that we’ve become a premier hospitality management firm.

The key is to set realistic customer expectations, and then not to just meet them, but to exceed them — preferably in unexpected and helpful ways. – Richard Branson

Here is a powerful yet simple rule. Always give people more than they expect to get. – Nelson Boswell

Traditional corporations, particularly large-scale service and manufacturing businesses are organized for efficiency. Or consistency. But not joy. Joy comes from surprise and connection and humanity and transparency and new…If you fear special requests, if you staff with cogs, if you have to put it all in a manual, then the chances of amazing someone are really quite low. – Seth Godin

We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It’s our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better. – Jeff Bezos

Make the customer the hero of your story. – Ann Handley

Customers don’t expect you to be perfect. They DO expect you to fix things when they go wrong.– Donald Porter

Always do more than is required of you. – George Patton

Every contact we have with a customer influences whether or not they’ll come back. We have to be great every time or we’ll lose them. – Kevin Stirtz

The longer you wait, the harder it is to produce outstanding customer service. – William H. Davidow

The goal as a company is to have customer service that is not just the best, but legendary. – Sam Walton

People expect good service but few are willing to give it. – Robert Gately

With budget season in full swing, hotel owners and operators everywhere are getting down to the nitty gritty and making important financial decisions about 2013. What is important to note, however, is that those budgeting decisions about next year are heavily informed by the results of this year, and even the smallest financial details are intimately and inextricably connected to operational realities.

As all experienced hotel-management professionals can attest, making a great hospitality destination more profitable first requires making a great hospitality destination. The context and perspective afforded by year-end budget-making decisions is the perfect time to take a critical assessment of your asset and evaluate how successful your management team has been at reaching that goal. As owners and operators work through the budgeting process, they are smart to take a long, hard look at whether their operational, management and financial strategies are working effectively to optimize resources, capture greater market share and deliver a consistently outstanding guest experience. What exactly can the budgeting process reveal about management and operational success? What are some of the warning signs and key indicators that a hotel might be underperforming? And, if it is underperforming, when and how do you determine that it is time to make a management change? It is critical to note these points during the budgeting process.

Keeping up with the Joneses

Don’t just evaluate hotel performance in a vacuum, assess performance relative to the larger marketplace and consider how your numbers stack up against your competitors. Numbers don’t lie. Momentum is also a critical (and often underappreciated) factor. If you are moving in the right direction, less-than-ideal performance in the near term may just be growing pains. If you are moving in the wrong direction, however, that is a clear red flag that requires action.

No excuses While the recession took its toll on the hospitality industry as a whole, revenue per available room is on the rise across the industry, and other metrics are also moving in the right direction. This is a time when expectations should be rising, and tolerance for excuse-making based on a lackluster economy should be falling. Part of the danger of coming out of an extended economic downturn is that owners and operators alike can become lulled into lowered expectations and accept mediocrity. With RevPAR and occupancy projections up across the board, owners should be raising their eyebrows—and expectations—accordingly.

Is your franchise flag at half-mast?

If your hotel is consistently not meeting brand standards or is struggling to achieve them, it might be time to rethink your management strategy. A thorough review of customer-service scores should provide benchmarks for performance and insight into management focus. Certainly, any brand red zone items are always cause for concern, but equally as important is management’s method of addressing and resolving these issues. An antagonistic approach is rarely effective. Instead, management should be continually focused on achieving the best return on the franchise investment.

Oh captain, my captain

While every employee makes valuable contributions, the most important member of the management team is the GM. The right GM can make all the difference, with inspirational leadership, great communication skills and the strong ability to instill and promote a culture of teamwork, service and accountability. The results of that level of leadership can make an impact that is visible all the way down to the bottom line.

Is your upkeep keeping up?

It is not exactly news that poorly maintained hotels that have had an insufficient investment in upkeep and infrastructure tend to struggle. If an end-of-year review for an underperforming property shows the opposite, however, that might be even more of a reason to raise an eyebrow. A significant disparity between the way a property looks to guests and the way its performance looks on paper can be a sign of less-than-successful management.

Clear and consistent communication

The best hotel management professionals understand the value of clear and consistent communication. Many of them rely on regular and comprehensive property evaluation reports that encompass all aspects of a hotel’s monthly performance. Keeping the lines of communication open with consistent and timely reporting is vital. If communication is strong, then when owners and operators sit down at the end of the year to review the budget, there should be no surprises.

Back to the future

Budget time is the time of year when owners and investors are more focused than ever both on what their performance has been and what their projected performance is going to be. It is a chance to take a longer-term view, integrating year-to-date and end-of-year projections into long-term patterns and analysis. As a result, this is also the time when month-to-month performance excuses come to roost. Your budget is an opportunity to step back and look at the macro numbers and determine if you are meeting expectations. Owners who are making that evaluation need to use past performance as a common-sense guide. If your management company projected $14 million in 2012 and instead you did $9 million, ask yourself whether you have any good reason to believe that $13 million during 2013 will be any more accurate.

Make it work

The consistent ability to identify and capitalize on revenue-management opportunities is not about luck, it is about designing and executing effective strategies aimed at increasing specific revenue channels. End-of-year financials should show that management professionals are working efficiently with the brand to maximize resources and optimize results. If management teams are regularly evaluating (and re-evaluating market data) and adapting their strategy accordingly, they will be able to capitalize on available rate categories that will show up in end-of-year breakdowns.

Timing is everything

If a thoughtful and analytical look at the numbers reveals that a management change would be beneficial and likely provide a boost in performance, timing quickly becomes an issue. For owners that want to see a new management company in place on the first of the year, the time to act is now. Experienced management professionals will move quickly, but because most management contracts include a 60- to 90-day termination clause, waiting until the holidays to pull the trigger on a change is almost always a non-starter. If a change is required to see results, you might need to, well, book it.

Almost every other week, there is an article about how hotels are trying to "embrace" the Millennial traveler. Basically, anyone born from the 1980s to the early 2000s is in this group. It's everyone's new favorite generation to talk about in the hospitality and travel marketing realm. But are they really that different from the rest of us? Do they "Tru-ly" need their own brands?

The Brand Approach

All the big brands seem to be in a rush to get the Millennials' dollars and build loyalty with them. Their solution so far has been large-scale branding. For a large hotel company, the biggest reason to launch a new brand is to create a new concept for more investors and owners to invest in. That is the prime objective. Besides, you know that there are only so many similar Hilton/ Wyndham/Marriott-owned brands that can exist in the same city. A new brand is so much easier to sell to owners and investors because you will be the 'first'. But is this really the best approach from a marketing standpoint?

Smaller independent hoteliers are having much better luck with Millennials. Why is this happening? Well, where do I start… Oh yes, let's start with the concept of having a Hotel Brand. In the old Mad Men days of building a brand, there were concepts, meetings, Scotch, and then after-work drinks. Et voila! A brand was born, and everyone involved made a lot of money. Ah, the days before social media and alcohol-free workplaces. Constant connectivity, sharing, and reviews now let the customers (old and new) decide what you are, instead of relying the drawing board you made up in a Madison Avenue office.

Creating a large brand is not the best way to get attention from people who cherish small-scale uniqueness and value over gimmicks. Let's see how this plays out in Hilton's latest branding effort.

Tru Video Breakdown​Hilton recently overcame superstition and launched its 13th brand, called Tru. I see what they did there…took out the E in True. #innovationHere's what I learned from their marketing materials. Apparently, the new travelers like to work on a laptop in their tuxedo jackets and boxer shorts:​

In case you don't have the time or patience to watch the whole video, here's a quick recap:

Bam Bam Bam, Wow Wow Wow. Fun Fab Fit. Now Now Now Now, Yum, Mmm.

OMG. Is all I could come up with when I was done watching it. You can decide for yourself.

This new brand is targeting those with a "Millennial mindset" who want (and I quote): "a brand that is simplified, spirited and grounded in value, filling a massive void in the midscale category in the U.S. and Canada. Built from a belief that being cost-conscious and having a great stay don't have to be mutually exclusive, Tru by Hilton offers an experience unlike anything in its space, consistently delivered in a surprisingly affordable way."

According to Hilton, no brand is meeting the Millennial's needs at the midscale price point. Which is really odd, because there are so many midscale independents out there providing a very good price/location/service value.

Just looking at their top three big chain competitors, here are several examples of Millennial-themed midscale hotels:

Hyatt: Hyatt Place

Starwood: Element and Aloft

Marriott: Moxy, Courtyard Residence (And, by the way, have you seen how much fun people staying @ Marriott Residence are having according to this TV spot: Take Over the Town at Residence Inn?)

Tru Features Breakdown

These are the "innovative features" Tru by Hilton offers the traveling Millennial (in their own words):

No Desk in the Room

The Hive – A first floor experience that's more than a lobby – 2,770 square feet of open space with unique ways for guests to engage with others or spend time alone, in one of four distinct zones for lounging, working, eating or playing. (Obviously, nobody on the marketing team saw the Resident Evil movie or played the video game before selecting this name.)

1. No Desk ≠ Automatically Millennial Cool. Somewhere it got established that not having a desk makes a hotel room Millennial-friendly. But people have been using desks for activities other than just working for quite some time now and that is not going to change. Also, the Tru infographic clearly has the tuxedo guy working on his laptop; so is he working in his boxer shorts somewhere outside the room?

2. There is such a thing as a Free Breakfast. Their direct competitors like Aloft, Hyatt Place, etc, offer this already. Unless there is a regional/local twist, it really does not help you stand out.

3. No More Three-Letter Words. Bam. Fun. Fab. Fit. Now Now Yum. Littered all over the hotel lobby carpet. How about NOT. Educated Millennials have a decent vocabulary. Just because they use bae, woke and lit does not mean they are going to be impressed with your three-letter words. This may have worked in focus groups on which hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent. But to me it feels a little over the top.

Conclusion

It was time for Hilton to come with something to put up against the other brands in the midscale category. However, their hyper-Millennial(ized) marketing is more than a little phony; it will not resonate with a generation seeking uniqueness and local experiences. The essence video is a bit embarrassing for me to watch, and I'm sure I'm not alone. Millennials don't want to feel like they're a cheesy subset of society. They chase value as much as any other demographic would. Tru(e) dat. (Thud. Drop mike.)

From social synergy to the impact of mobile search, digital marketing in 2016 is a new landscape of creative engagement, seamless integration and the customer journey. With our eyes on every algorithm launch and search trend, Milestone has designed innovative strategies for online visibility, content engagement, conversion, ROI tracking and the user experience. Inspire your hotel marketing strategy by looking at these driving forces in digital marketing.

Importance of Mobile Presence for HotelsMobile search is the star trend of digital marketing. The universe of mobile users is massive – 3 in 5 people use mobile devices to search and 80% of local searches on mobile devices convert to purchase. With Google rolling out a new ranking factor for mobile-friendly sites, it is essential that your hotel website is optimized for mobile search and responsive on all mobile devices. The target is to enhance mobile traffic and ensure a robust and seamless experience with content that can be shared on social media.

Enhancing Your Hotel’s Local PresenceYour website has to tap into the possibilities of enhanced local search. The goal is to create optimized content and local profiles, manage quality citations and directory listings, and deliver a seamless mobile experience across devices. It is critical that you manage your local presence across search engines, IYPs, aggregators, business directories, local citations, and maps. Ensuring your hotel’s marketing strategy includes optimizing your content with headers, title tags, metadata, footers with location-based schemas, and image alt-tags will help strengthen the property’s local presence.

Hotel Social Media MarketingIn our connected online community, the synergy of social engagement empowers your digital marketing. Most of the world uses social media sites, including Google+, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and LinkedIn. Social media is a driver of brand awareness and customer relationships and retention. To be in the social conversation and derive traffic from social platforms, your web content must be interesting, build connections, and inspire conversion. Ensure your site is optimized for mobile and sharing across devices, and make sure to add OG tags and Twitter cards. Be a stand out with robust hotel social media outreach, engaging content and visual media.

Content Marketing – Engagement and the Customer JourneyContent marketing starts with understanding your audience and the customer journey. Content should engage, inspire and enhance the user experience. Empower your audience with engaging content, including local attractions and activities, visuals and trending topics. Your content should be optimized for local and conversational search and saturate diversified channels – from your website to blogs to Facebook. Look at KPI indicators – time spent on page, bounce and click-through rates and engagement patters. Once you determine top converting pages, enhance the content to encourage the path to purchase, and ensure mobile responsiveness.

TheUser ExperienceThe user experience is the human path to digital marketing. Audiences want to be engaged, be able to navigate your site, and tap into social influences. Conversion optimization starts with usability factors such as speed and performance, information architecture, legibility, colors and images. With robust architecture, clear design and navigation, and engaging content, your site will increase conversion. A smart way to see how the user experience relates to the conversion funnel is to implement A/B testing. Track which pages perform better based on simple design and content evolution, including floating buttons, drop-downs, marketing messages, and banners.

Attribute Hotel ROI Across All Touch PointsThe customer journey is evolving, so businesses need to alter their approach to measuring digital marketing ROI. With the dramatic spike in mobile search and social signals, the conversion funnel is not linear and the purchase journey can begin at any point along the decision path. It’s important for hotels and businesses to tap into this dynamic, target the audience journey, and personalize the content. With new innovations in digital tracking software, we can attribute ROI to every channel. By understanding the conversion path, attributing ROI, and integrating a dashboard to break down the data, we can see the value of each touch point.​Understanding the Hotel Customer JourneyFrom travel inspiration and research to booking to post-stay social, understanding the customer journey is paramount to your digital marketing strategy. In hospitality/travel, and just about any industry or business, customers use search, websites, social channels, and reviews to plan a trip or book a room. That’s why your hotel website has to be optimized for organic and paid search, connected to social channels, and designed for conversion. Being present on every layer of the customer journey gives your business the edge.

Marketing Takes on the Digital World In the coming year, the hyper-personalization of highly engaging and relevant content will be the primary key to ensure successful marketing initiatives in the digital world

Digital marketing is a term that is used frequently, but has the time come to stop considering it an entity that is separate from overall marketing strategies?

The reality is that all marketing today contains a massive digital component. Today's strategies must be conceptualized with the digital nature of the modern consumer in mind, as opposed to being an add-on to another marketing plan. People of all ages are increasingly running their lives with digital devices, and there is a growing expectation for the experience to be customized to their personal interests and needs.

At the same time, there are many organizations that continue to separate digital from other marketing avenues, with segregated teams that do not work together cohesively. While this made sense in the early days of digital, it simply isn't the most effective approach anymore.

To achieve marketing maturity in an ever-evolving landscape, companies must build an adaptable business structure that allows their team to be unified in working toward a single goal. The need to create high quality messaging is key, and marketers must continue to develop engaging and insightful content regardless of the medium.

​Although traditional channels still exist, it's important to create digital cultures rather than marketing silos in order to fully integrate skills throughout organizations as we move into the future. The array of marketing activities need to be interwoven to develop robust campaigns that achieve success across the board, allowing for traditional to influence digital, and vice versa.

What can we expect to see in the coming year?

Content marketing has grown exponentially over the past couple of years, and it shows no sign of slowing down in the coming period. While it can be easy to get caught up in the complexities of SEO elements, it's essential to remember that the key is delivering fresh and relevant content that resonates with your target audience.

A new marketing focus is shifting away from simply creating more content to providing the right content. Consumers now expect personalized and hyper-relevant information that is delivered to them instantly wherever they are engaging, whether that is on social, email or any other channel. The pressure to consistently provide a seamless and enticing experience will increase and marketers must meet this demand to achieve success.

Ad-blocking is also on the rise, which will have a big effect on the future of marketing. The model of delivering free content that is funded by display advertising, such as banners and pop-ups, is therefore becoming less effective. Taking advantage of cleaner platforms that showcase truly relevant content as part of a cohesive communications strategy will help marketers to avoid losing ground from the growing usage of ad-blocking software.

The Gold Mine of Data

Predictive analytics is becoming increasingly useful to assist with the efficient allocation of marketing budgets. By utilizing the latest tools and techniques to make sense of the massive amount of data that is being generated with each impression and click, there is a tremendous opportunity to make the most out of every marketing dollar that is spent.

Most organizations are spending marketing dollars across many different channels. The ability to attribute value to each touchpoint in the path to purchase will allow marketers to accurately predict the budget allocation that will perform best. Additionally, predicting the probability of an audience to become a customer allows the focus to be on high value prospects.

Modern consumers expect a high level of personalization. By combining digital experiences with customer data, it becomes possible to predict the groups of users that are more or less likely to respond to different types of messages, offers and imagery. Today's personalization tools allow marketers to deliver customized content that matches a consumer's interests and expectations with a much higher degree of accuracy than has been possible in the past.

Beacon is the New Mobile

Considering the growing prevalence of mobile shopping, beacon technology usage is expected to increase exponentially in the coming year. Location-based marketing offers attention-grabbing ways to engage with consumers by providing them with discounts and other information on their smartphone when they are in close proximity to a store.

A 2015 study by Air Mile operator LoyaltyOne, in partnership with the Canadian Marketing Association, indicates that 62% of Canadian consumers who were surveyed are using their smartphones to assist them while shopping, with this number increasing to 80% among millennials. Impressively, 45% of the respondents said that they have used a device in-store that has led them to make an immediate purchase. When asked what they find appealing about connecting with retailers through in-store beacons, 62% of respondents said that they like the idea of receiving rewards that are relevant to their location, while 56% appreciate receiving alerts that are related to their whereabouts.

Certainly, the meteoric rise of mobile marketing has prompted a growing number of smartphone users to opt-in to location-based deals. Although this requires consumers to expose their personal data and proximity to retailers, many believe that the incentive of exclusive, time-sensitive specials or rewards are worth the sacrifice of an element of privacy. At the same time, it's important to find the most effective quantity of location-based services to send, as 23% of the survey respondents indicated that they have uninstalled or opted out of push notifications from a retailer's app due to the frequency of messaging.

​We are now living in an era where digital marketing can no longer be considered a stand-alone entity. The organizations that are most effective have removed marketing silos to create unified messaging concepts across all types of media and campaigns. In the coming year, the hyper-personalization of highly engaging and relevant content will be the primary key to ensure successful marketing initiatives in the digital world.

Wendy Pashman's catering business held steady during the Great Recession by focusing on the luxury social scene when the corporate market faltered.

Her chefs prepared tandoori eggplant and mango lassis for Indian weddings; pot roast parfaits and gingersnap sweet potatoes for an "international comfort food" nuptial feast; and Israeli couscous and chop chae for a Korean-Jewish bar mitzvah.

Now, with signs of economic recovery cropping up, the Near West Side caterer is redoubling her push for more corporate customers. "There are clients who have called us who haven't had parties in a long time," said Pashman, president of Entertaining Company. "We also see budgets increasing, and holiday parties too."

Chicago's hospitality industry, which relies on locals as well as visitors, appears to be slowly thawing after more than a year in the deep freeze.

Hotel occupancy rates are climbing out of their 2009 troughs, a luxury hotel plan is being resurrected, the overhaul of McCormick Place is beginning to bear fruit and state officials report a rise in tourism tax receipts, indicating an uptick in visitors.

"Everyone's business is a little better — nothing gangbusters," said Maria Zec, general manager of the tony Peninsula Chicago, which held five Christmas tea buffets for children, rather than two, due to high demand. "We're all cautiously optimistic, but we have to get through January and February again, and that's always kind of tough."

The latter end of the recession hit Chicago hard. Travel volume fell 13 percent in 2009, compared with 4.3 percent for the nation, according to data from D.K. Shifflet & Associates, which provides research to Illinois tourism officials.

Business travel declined more dramatically than leisure travel nationwide, and that was hard on the Chicago area, said Jan Kostner, the state's deputy director of tourism.

But state hotel-motel tax receipts were up nearly 7 percent for the first nine months of 2010, compared with the same period in 2009. And while that is considerably below the 2008 peak, the upward movement is promising, Kostner said.

"I think retail sales being up for the holidays was a nice indicator that people want to get out, that they want to spend some money," she said. "I think 2011 (travel) will continue to increase, but it will be small, maybe 2 percent."

Elmhurst-based hotel consultant Ted Mandigo estimates Chicago's downtown hotels, which in 2010 started pulling out of their swoon, this year will see a 2 percent increase in occupancy rates to 72 percent. While still off the 2007 rate of 74.4 percent reported by Smith Travel Research, upward movement is welcome in an industry where an estimated 20 percent of properties are behind on mortgage payments or in default.

Plans to develop a luxury hotel in the former IBM building at 330 N. Wabash Ave. are being revived, in part because of the stronger travel outlook. Plans call for a 330-room Langham Hotel to open in 2012 in the lower floors of the Mies van der Rohe-designed building, across the street from Trump International Hotel & Tower."We do feel Chicago has bottomed out and is in for a multiyear growth spurt," said John Rutledge, managing member of Oxford OG Hospitality Chicago, the project's developer. "We are also encouraged by the recasting of (labor union) work rules at McCormick Place. That is a dramatic and important development for Chicago's competitiveness."

Still, a hospitality comeback is likely to be drawn out.

Nationally, the convention business grew in the third quarter of 2010, the first uptick since the first quarter of 2008, according to the Center for Exhibition Industry Research. And since last summer, many McCormick Place trade shows reported growth in attendance and exhibit space, according to Jack Johnson, acting chief executive of the Chicago Convention & Tourism Bureau, which books business into the complex.

The bureau has announced 13 new or renewed trade show contracts since a state law aimed at reviving the city's convention business took effect in May. And the bureau might soon announce new agreements for 2011 corporate meetings.

Still, McCormick Place's show schedule tends to be weaker in odd-numbered years, and much of the newly booked business will occur in later years. The center faces a long climb to levels seen in the early 2000s, and the incoming convention bureau chief, Don Welsh will be under pressure to land new contracts after he takes the helm in early February.

Across the country, business-travel spending is increasing slowly, as companies remain cost conscious, according to the National Business Travel Association, which projects spending will not return to peak levels until the end of 2012.

Such trends are being felt locally by entrepreneurs such as Holly Agra, president of Chicago's First Lady Cruises, a private charter/specialty cruise company. Her business experienced a drop-off in events hosted by financial institutions in 2009 after President Barack Obama objected to corporations spending on excessive travel after taking government bailout funds, she said.

Last year, some clients returned, but they watched their nickels. "Compared to 10 years ago, they are not spending on flowers or live bands or decor," Agra said.

Still, some people popped corks during the recent holidays. Sheila O'Grady, president of the Illinois Restaurant Association, said she chatted with a liquor supplier who couldn't keep up with robust demand for champagne during the holiday season.

"It's a sign that everyone is ready for the bad times to be over," she said. "People are thinking, 'It's a little better, so let's pop the champagne.'"

Performance Management is a system developed out of the best practice of top performing organizations to provide managers with a structured approach to the key retention criteria. Simplistically, most people will feel motivated and will want to stay in their job if their manager:

pays attention to their work provides them with a job to match their skills, knowledge and experience gives them opportunities to grow and develop judges their performance objectively

Traditionally, the annual appraisal is the only meeting during the year when an average or better worker will meet their boss to discuss performance. People with poor performance can and do have a regular audience with their manager; sometimes on a weekly basis. Your appraisal form is "the" document that is held on file as a record of how good, bad or indifferent you might have been. For some, this may be the only time in the year that they receive plaudits and even these may be guarded comments because of the close link in everyone's mind between appraisal and pay rise despite repeated denials. Too much praise might raise expectations of a large pay increase. Poor performers, however, frequently receive far more than their fair share of management attention throughout the year.

If paying attention to our employees is one of the greatest motivators, when did we decide that high performers need less motivation than poor performers? Of course they don't! Many of the top performing companies in the world have introduced regular coaching and mentoring sessions to supplement the appraisal system and to give all employees a regular, sometimes fortnightly, opportunity to talk about their job, their performance against their objectives, their motivation and their aspirations.

Coaching

Often you can see situations where managers act as spectators. Their behavior plus the words they use along with their body language would not be out of place at a soccer or baseball match. They would be sitting in the stands eating a hot dog, throwing down a beer and belting out criticism at the players (their staff) on the field. There is almost no connection between the manager and the staff other than they just happen to be sitting in the same building.

This image is used to point out the profound difference between the 'manager as coach' and the 'manager as spectator'. A coach works individually with players, helping them to overcome setbacks and obstacles to progress forward. They know and understand how their players respond to different types of motivation and how their family life and health impact their performance.

The majority of coaching is done on a very frequent basis. You simply don't wait for the big match to deliver your advice to the team in the way the 'manager as spectator' does. You work very closely with everyone in the team, understanding the strengths and weaknesses of your defense and your strikers before they are tested under pressure.